Hollywood’s new king of comedy
Naked Gun is reloaded with an unlikely shooter: Liam Neeson
Anyone who has followed the brilliant but confounding career of Liam Neeson knows his recent turn as Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun is not a case of “action star transitioning to comedy,” as Hollywood shorthand would have it.
Liam Neeson’s a funny guy and has been doing comedy of one kind or another for forty years. He just never had the lead role like a Bill Murray or a Will Ferrell.
That should change now. Even though Neeson just turned 73, he clearly has a bright future ahead of him in movies that make people laugh. Which is what The Naked Gun does. When’s the last time you sat in a movie theater and laughed along with lots of other people at some pretty juvenile jokes and sophomoric slapstick action?
In one scene, Drebin Jr. reads from a file as he confronts a suspect. “You’re charged with mans laughter. That’s serious,” he tells him. “You mean manslaughter,” says the suspect.
There are too many lines like that in The Naked Gun to count. As well as some sketchy set pieces you'll swear you’ve seen somewhere else. Like when a bad guy is surveilling Drebin and the femme fatale Beth Davenport (Pam Anderson). They’re in his kitchen preparing to cook a turkey. But that’s not what it looks like the two are doing when seen through night goggles. There’s a dog involved too. You know right where this is going.
As Father Sean hearing Homer's confession.
In the realm of Live Action Comedy
Who knows how long Neeson’s reign will last? Live action comedy is a sub-genre, like Rom Com or Buddy Comedy. Basically, it signifies a comedy that doesn’t use animation to sell the funny. (I had the pleasure of laughing in a crowded theater recently at a movie based on a video game called Minecraft. At least kids are coming up knowing what that feels like.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Hollywood released 18 live action comedies in 2014. Eight of them made more than 100 mil at the box office. (Neeson contributed a cameo to Ted 2 that year It was a successful hybrid starring Mark Wahlberg and a stuffed animal that talks.) In 2024, by the WSJ count, NOT A SINGLE live action comedy was released. The Naked Gun is only the second one released this year.
This poster for Neil Jordan's film was banned in Ireland. The year was 1996. Too inflammatory, it was feared.
A few words in praise of Liam Neeson
Would I have driven across Portland on a hot summer afternoon to see The Naked Gun if it hadn’t starred Liam Neeson, Ireland’s leading Leading Man for the last three decades? Nope. Would I go out of my way to catch one of his action movies (Taken I, II, III, Absolution, Resolution, Cold Pursuit, The Ice Road)? Nope.
Neeson has made more than 100 movies and a score of tv appearances while lending that gravelly/gravitas voice of his to dozens of documentaries. He picked up a mighty work ethic in Ballymena where he was born in the “North of Ireland,” as he refers to NI. He was educated in Catholic schools, trained as a heavyweight boxer, drove a forklift in a Guinness brewery and eventually took up acting.
When Neeson became an American citizen in 2009 he made one thing clear. “I’m still a proud Irishman.” Though raised Catholic in a town 30 miles from Belfast that was in the news recently for anti-immigrant riots, he mostly keeps his feelings about the “situation” to himself. (Kind of like Rory McIlroy who grew up nearby.) One notable cause he supports is the effort to de-segregate schools in the North. It’s rare for Catholic kids and Protestant kids to attend the same school. He’s trying to change that.
He is best known for his role as Bryan Mills and for this phone call. LINK Taken I, II, III made his name in a way that even his Oscar-nominated performance as Oscar Schindler didn’t. Literally. As a boy’s first name in America, Liam ranked 75 in 2008, the year Taken I was released. By 2011 it had moved up to 15. Every year since 2017 Liam has been the number one boy’s name in America. It’s only the eighth most popular boy’s name in Ireland.
FOOTNOTE: My oldest son, Liam, was born in October of 1980. Unreliable family lore claimed that his name was chosen after seeing Liam Neeson in Darkman. That Sam Raimi classic came out in 1990.
He worked with the Coen Brothers as an Irish immigrant trying to make a buck in 19th Century America.
Liam Neeson’s Irish Movies
MICHAEL COLLINS – 1996 – Must see romanticized history of The Rising. Almost great.
FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN – 2009 – Best movie about The Troubles.
GANGS OF NEW YORK – 2002 – When the Irish came to New York.
ROB ROY – 1995 – Okay, it’s Scottish screen history. Close enough to Ireland.
MEAL TICKET – 2018 – One of the movies inside The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs. It’ll tear you up.
IN THE LAND OF SAINT AND SINNERS – 2023 – Irish Action. With Kerry Condon and Ciaran Hinds. Overlooked.